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Amnesty Int'l Opposes Military Tribunals

Posted on: Monday, 18 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Amnesty International on Tuesday urged the United States to call off plans to try terrorist suspects before military tribunals, and to give international observers access to prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

The international human rights organization said it was seriously concerned about persistent allegations of ill-treatment and the refusal of U.S. authorities to grant access to independent human rights organizations and lawyers.

"Allegations of abuses such as arbitrary arrests, prolonged incommunicado detention, ill-treatment, interrogations without legal counsel and threats of unfair trials by military bodies are raised each year in the U.S. State Department's reports on human rights practices in other countries," Amnesty International said.

"Now they are being made against the U.S. government in the context of its 'war on terror.'"

A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. Defense Department would have no comment on the report until Tuesday.

"Concern about the interrogations or the possibility of coerced plea bargains is heightened by the USA's ongoing plans to try selected detainees in front of military commissions," Amnesty said. "These executive bodies will allow a lower standard of evidence than would be admissible in the ordinary courts and will have the power to hand down death sentences."

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